杏吧原创

A GALAXY in the constellation Centaurus is apparently spinning with its arms
facing the wrong way.

NGC 4622 is a spiral galaxy that lies 111 million light years away. It has
bright twisting arms containing newborn stars. In most spiral galaxies, these
arms trail behind as the galaxy rotates.

Ron Buta of the University in Alabama in Tuscaloosa and his team have used
pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope to show that NGC 4622 is spinning
clockwise when you look at it from Earth. But the galaxy鈥檚 outer spiral arms are
pointing forwards as they rotate, rather than trailing behind.

This suggests the galaxy might have guzzled another one with the opposite
spin. That might also explain why the outer arms are a bit lopsided, as though
they鈥檝e been disturbed.